What Linux OS to use for a PC dedicated to running an audio player like Audacious?
 

Hi all,
This will be my first venture into Linux territory, and I gotta say, I have so far come across a lot of jargon, acronyms, language foreign to me.

Basically, I have gotten hold of an old PC (800mhz Pentium III, 350Mg ram, 40g hdd) which I want to convert into a dedicated music library to connect to my hifi. I have done some research and it seems that Audacious, or QuodLibet may be top contenders as audio player software for this purpose. However, what I can't figure out is what version of Linux OS I should use ideally/optimally for this software? There appear to be endless varieties? I really want to have an OS that boots very fast and obviously doesn't need any extras. I have so far only used Foobar2000 on XP (will experiment with TinyXP as an OS too, though this is of dubious legality which puts me off) I have heard of DamnSmallLinux but dont know if it will work or not with Linux based audio players?

It appears that before software will work in Linux you often need to install a handfull of other add-ons too?

Hope this is the right forum to ask such newbie questions in...

Thanks!

Musix (Debian/Knoppix-based) is designed for audio and video production as well as graphic design
The editing machines in my office are running Ubuntu Studio, so that's another option.

I haven't had any experience with dyne:bolic, but it's designed for audio/video work.

Ok, thankyou. That gives me a couple of leads. Anyone else can suggest any stripped-down/really-fast linux OS's that will suit a player such as Audacious or QuodLibet?

If you're willing to use the command line, Slackware.

No matter what distro you use, I recommend a stripped down window manager instead of a heavy desktop environment. Fluxbox is kickass, but you need to spend a few minutes learning how to configure it. It loads instantly on my laptop with similar specs. In slackware, you can flip around between window managers with the command xwmconfig. To use a window manager (ie. fluxbox) instead of an environment (like KDE or GNOME) means that you'll need to know how to manually mount media through the terminal. This is not too hard to get the hang of.

I'm actually in the process of doing what you're considering. I have an AMD Duron 850 with 384mb ram, but unfortunately only an 18gb HD. I solved that by adding an external USB HD for more capacity. I run Puppy Linux v4.12. The only thing I've added is version 1.4.10 of a program called Amarok compiled to run under Puppy. It is easily downloadable. Puppy comes with a program called PC Ripper which digitizes the music. I've even added music I recorded from cassette and LP to CD, the ripped. Right now I have about 4,000 tracks. Amarok builds your collection based on where you tell it the music is. I just point toward the USB drive. It allows you to build playlists, load albums, even has built in "smart" playlists such as 50 random tracks, most frequently played, or even the entire collection. You can shuffle the playlists, etc. You might want to check it out. Puppy runs completely in ram and is only about a 100mb download. To make Amarok work (which is actually designed for Kubuntu) you have to do a full install, rather than a "frugal" install. I love the way mine works.

What sort of boot time do you get before your program is loaded and ready to go? I got 36 seconds with my stripped down XP os. Would still like to try linux but looking for a bitperfect driver for my C-Media soundcard. Also using Autohotkey to autostart my audio software and remove everything onscreen except the playlist - so what I end up with onscreen doesn't look like it is coming off a computer. More minimalist in style. Any alternatives for these features inthe Linux world?

Thanks.

I haven't measured the actually boot time but I will. I know it actually takes longer to go through the POST screen than to load the OS. I use a window manager that loads items to the desktop, but there are alternatives that give you a clean clean and I'm sure once Amarok is installed you could switch window managers to soemthing like fluxbox which esentially gives you a clean desktop with a right click pop-up menu. Linux allows start up scripts that would allow you to the the jukebox. I would burn a live cd and boot up to see if Puppy recognizes your sound card. If it doesn't automatically, run Alsa from the setup menu and it bet it will auto configure. When i get a second I'll try to check boot times on the HD install. Don't go by the Live CD boot times. After Puoppy has run once or twice it.\ loads much faster and since it's running totally in ram it runs quickly even on an old machine like this with only 384 mb. My biggest slow down is getting the external USB HD up and running, but you won't have that problem.

I finally got a chance to time the boot and from the end of the POST to full desktop is 31 seconds. I have done nothing over the standard installation to speed up the boot (yet!)